Breadcrumb
It is your responsibility as a graduate student to understand how to complete your degree using the Graduate School Rules and the CEAE Department Rules, and to understand your Graduate Student Rights and Responsibilities. It is your responsibility to track your progress and milestones through your degree. We suggest meeting with your adviser prior to each semester to review and update your Academic Advising Plan, and to file a copy of this plan with the office of the Graduate Program Coordinator.
Requirements for a master’s degree can be fulfilled in two ways. Under Plan I, you must complete 30 semester hours of course work-including six thesis hours. Under Plan IIa, one of the non-thesis options, 30 credit hours of course work are required – including a 3-credit independent study report. Plan IIb, is a 30- hour coursework option with final exam, although it is not available for some programs, please check department rules and with your advisor. Time to degree limit: Master’s degree students have 4 years from the semester in which they are admitted and begin course work to complete all degree requirements. If you fail to complete the degree in this four-year period you may be dismissed from their program with the concurrence of the major advisor and/or appropriate departmental personnel.
Complete a Course Agreement Form with your faculty advisor directing the credits and return the completed form the the CEAE Graduate Advising Team at ceaegrad.advising@colorado.edu for registration. Review the form's information carefully to make sure you are requesting registration under the correct course number for your program of study.
MS Thesis Track: Students must complete six thesis credits (in addition to a minimum of 24 coursework credits) to satisfy track requirements. Students cannot take more than six thesis credits. These six credits can be broken up between semesters, or taken all at once. Discuss your thesis timeline with your faculty advisor.
MS Report Track: Students must complete three report credits (in addition to a minimum of 27 coursework credits) to satisfy track requirements. Students cannot take more than three report credits. Theese three credits can be broken up between semesters, or taken all at once. Discuss your report timeline with your faculty advisor.
MS Candidate for Degree Credits: Students should only register for this credit if they have already met all requirements but need to register to complete graduation processes, etc. Please only request registeration for this credit after discussing the need for it with your faculty advsior and the CEAE Graduate Advising Team to make sure it is necessary.
Complete an Independent Study Agreement with the faculty directing your independent study. Submit the completed form to the Graduate Advising Team at ceaegrad.advising@colorado.edu for registration.
Note: Per Graduate School rules, independent study credits cannnot exceed 25 percent (rounded to the nearest whole number) of the coursework required for the master's degree.
Prepare a Transfer of Credit Request form to initiate this process.
While Completing the Form:
Please complete all required fields on the form for accurate review. Please submit any necessary supplemental documents on the Transfer of Credit directly. CVEN and AREN students should include the current CEAE Associate Chair for Graduate Education on the form. EVEN students should enter the current EVEN Graduate Director.
Eligibility & Requirements:
Students must hold a 3.0 GPA and have completed 6 credits at CU Boulder before they are eligible to start this form. It is recommended that students initiate the form in their second semester of study. It must be submitted, processed, and approved by the department and Graduate School before students can fill out the MS Candidacy Application in their final semester.
To be eligible for transfer, credits must be graduate level and have earned a grade of 'B' or better at the institution they were completed. They cannot have been used toward satisfying requirements for a previous bachelor's degree, or a graduate degree at the same level you are currently pursuing at the University of Colorado Boulder (e.g. Cannot transfer credits used toward a previous MS degree at another university toward an MS at CU Boulder).
MS students can typically transfer up to nine credit hours. Connect with your faculty advisor to review the coursework you are seeking to transfer before intiating the form. Pleaes refer to the Transfer of Credit form for more information on eligibility.
You will complete the final exam process in your final semester of formal registration and must be completed according to Graduate School Deadlines for that semester. Please visit our Graduating Students page for more information
Please visit our Graduating Students webpage for more information, resources, and helpful links as you prepare to graduate from your degree program. You may also refer to the Graduate School’s webpage for graduating Master’s Degree students.
- The Graduate School – for rules, forms, funding information, policies, resources, professional development, research, and everything Graduate student-related
- Buff Portal – to register for classes, choose health insurance, learn your student ID number, and to links to all these sites and way more
- The Bursar’s Office – for tuition & fee costs, bills, payments, tax info
- The Registrar’s Office:
- for all US Citizens and Permanent Residents to apply for in-state tuition. This process is required if you are being funded by our department as an RA or TA:
- to obtain enrollment verification for housing, etc.
- to apply for the Time-Off Program – an approved leave of absence from the University
- if you are a TA or RA, but you don’t have the CU Resources tab on your MyCUInfo portal, go to the Registrar’s office and give them your Social Security number
- to register for concurrent or intercampus registration
- The Admissions Office – to deliver any missing credentials (transcripts or documents): Regent Administrative Center
- The Financial Aid Office: Regent Administrative Center
- The Admitted Students page – to find student services for graduate students. This site was written for graduate students by graduate students
- Graduation Information – Commencement
A PhD requires 30 semester hours of coursework plus 30 hours of thesis credit. As a PhD student, you are also required to successfully complete a preliminary exam, a comprehensive exam and a final dissertation defense. Degree Time Limit: Doctoral degree students are expected to complete all degree requirements within six years from the semester in which they are admitted and begin course work in the doctoral program. If you fail to complete the degree in this six-year period you may be dismissed from the program with the concurrence of the major advisor and/or appropriate departmental personnel.
You will take a Preliminary Examination normally not later than 12 months from the time you are first enrolled in the Doctoral Program. Each CEAE group has a designated time for PhD students to take the exam. Discuss the schedule, date, and format of the exam with your academic advisor.
No, there is no official paperwork that needs to be completed for the preliminary exam. However, the group will deliver a copy of the exam results to the office of the Graduate Program Coordinator to be filed in your academic folder.
You must pass this examination in order to continue in the Doctoral Program.
Before admission to candidacy for the doctoral degree, you must pass a Comprehensive Examination which shall consist of a written and an oral examination in your field of concentration and related fields. At the Comprehensive Examination, you shall also present a plan for your dissertation research to the Advisory Committee for approval.
The exam may not be attempted until your last semester of formal course work.
Yes – You will need to complete the following paperwork:
Prepare this form with your faculty advisor at least two weeks in advance of your exam date.This is a DocuSign workflow owned by the Graduate School that will automatically route the document to your committee members to collect signatures after your exam takes place. The form will ask you to provide your exam date and committee members which will be reviewed/approved by the Graduate School ahead of your exam.
Prepare this online form in coordination with your faculty advisor as you prepare for the comprehensive exam. The form reviews your coursework to indicate that you have satisfied course requirements for your degree program. Please refer to the Candidacy Application Student Guide for help while filling out the form.
Submit the PhD Comprehensive Exam Form at LEAST two weeks in advance of your exam date. This is important because the Graduate School uses this form to review/approve of your exam committee which needs to happen BEFORE your exam takes place to ensure your results can be accepted. This buffer allows us to also make sure that your exam committee members are set up properly and qualify to sit on your exam.
Submit the Candidacy Application Form at least two weeks ahead of your comprehensive exam.
Your committee will consist of five members in total. At least one half of the committee must be resident graduate faculty of CEAE. Your first member and Chair will be your faculty advisor. If the Chair of your exam committee is not a full-time member of CEAE’s resident graduate faculty then a Co-Chair must be appointed.
Your committee must consist of at least ONE outside member. ‘Outside’ can be defined as someone from another department at CU Boulder, another university, or someone in a relevant industry. Connect with the Graduate Program Specialist regarding your outside member to make sure they are set up to sit on your exam.
Speak with your faculty advisor about which faculty members should be on your committee, then contact those faculty members and coordinate a time to present.
Your faculty advisor must approve all members of your Exam Committee. If approved, connect with the Graduate Program Specialist to determine whether your outside member has a current appointment with the Graduate School. If not, you will need to obtain and provide a copy of that individual’s CV/resume to the Graduate Program Specialist who will submit a Graduate Faculty Appointment Request for review/approval. This approval process can take 2-3 weeks so it is important to begin this process in advance of your exam. If your member is NOT approved BEFORE the exam, your exam results cannot be approved and will be invalid.
It can take several weeks, especially if their resume is not current or the committee member is not involved in research and has current publications. In cases where the committee member is not involved in research or has current publications, you will need to write a petition to the CEAE Chair to request special permission. If approved, the CEAE Chair will need to forward the petition for additional approval to the Dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science. If this petition is approved, the Dean of the Graduate School has to provide final approval for the committee member to be on the board of your Exam. At any stage of approval, the petition could be turned back for more information or rejected. It will be up to your and your academic advisor to address the concerns of the Chair or the Deans and your exam will not take place until all are satisfied. Start forming your Comprehensive Exam Committee a few months before your actual exam date to make sure the committee is approved.
Contact ceaeoffice@colorado.edu to reserve a conference or classroom space. Reserve space as early as possible, as all departments in the College of Engineering and Applied Science have graduate students taking their Comprehensive Exam or Final Exams around the same time. Plan ahead.
Yes. You need to complete your Comprehensive Exam during the semester you are enrolled in courses or a dissertation credit(s) and you have up to the day before the start of the next term. In other words:
- You need to be enrolled in a courses or at least 1 dissertation credits the semester you take your Comprehensive Exam, and
- You need to complete the exam before the new semester starts.
Signatures will be collected automatically by the form’s DocuSign workflow. Make sure to enter correct emails for all committee members so there are no delays.
Students must prepare a Transfer of Credit Request form to initiate this process. It must be completed before you can fill out the Candidacy Application for the PhD – ideally in your second semester or as soon as you have completed six credits at CU Boulder as they may take some time to process. Students must have completed at least six credits at CU Boulder before they are eligible to transfer. Please refer to the second page of the transfer request form for more information on policies/requirements.
Fill out the first half of the form and send it to the department’s Graduate Program Specialist at ceaegrad.advising@colorado.edu along with a copy of your official transcript. They will fill out the rest of the form and collect signature approval from your faculty advisor and CEAE’s Associate Chair of Graduate Education.
Doctoral students typically may transfer up to 21 credit hours of coursework where a ‘B’ grade or better was obtained on all work being considered for transfer. Connect with your faculty advisor however to confirm the transfer limit as your program may restrict the number allowed.
Doctoral students can typically transfer up to 21 credit hours of coursework where a ‘B’ grade or better was obtained on all work being considered for transfer. Connect with your faculty advisor however to confirm the transfer limit as your program may restrict the number allowed.
Complete a Course Agreement Form with the professor directing the credits you are completing to register for their section under the appropriate course number. Submit the completed form to the Graduate Advising Team at ceaegrad.advising@colorado.edu for registration.
Students may register for a minimum of one, maximum of 10 credits per semester. Post-comprehensive students must register in five dissertation credits per semester to be considered full-time.
Please visit our "Graduating Students" page for more information. You may also refer to the Graduate School’s webpage for graduating Doctoral Degree Students.
- Preliminary Exam
- Comprehensive Exam – Request for Transfer of Credit form(Optional), Candidacy Application for Advance Degree form, Doctoral Exam form (Comp)
- Final Exam – Apply to Graduate (BuffPortal), Doctoral Exam form (Final), Dissertation Upload, Original Signature Page, Final Grade Card